Ralph Jones

Dealerscope makes the move from regional to national coverage By Jim Barry Dealerscope Editor, 1978-1985 When I joined Dealerscope as managing editor in 1978, it was just beginning a transformation from its roots as a regional publication to a nationally focused magazine. Mike Torf, the magazine's owner/founder, had recently merged Dealerscope with Don Martin's Television Appliance Dealer (TAD), a similar publication based on the West Coast. The magazine had already expanded south and west from its Boston roots, building a strong reputation as a distributor book in the heyday of two-step distribution. Those were the days when manufacturers of "white goods" and "brown goods"—legacy terms from the days